Auroville Farms Assessment 2023
Organization, History and Context
Farm Group
Until 2023, Auroville farmers had organised themselves under a ‘farm group’ that represented the needs of the farms with the Auroville administration as well as external supporters. Over the past few decades, it has been instrumental in shaping the policies relating to farming in Auroville, and together with other related working groups of Auroville, the group co-facilitated processes for farming-land allocations, stewardships, recommendations for new farming projects, permissions for building infrastructure within the farms etc. It was also the central point for fundraising for Auroville farms. The group also organised regular meetings between farmers, shared best practices, new technologies, and managed a pool of funds to support farming and distribution in Auroville. One of the main work of the farm group was to set up and direct Foodlink which aimed to be the centralised distribution point of all farms. Practical planning and coordination of farms were mainly conducted through smaller sub-groups such as the grain group, dairy group, and veg group where associated farmers met periodically. However, as an interest group of farmers, it itself had conflict of interests within farmers and like most Auroville groups, there were challenges of organisation and decision making.
Farm Service
After the change in administration of the Auroville Foundation office in 2021 and later the working groups starting in 2022, farms were brought directly under the foundation office’s purview and through an office order passed by the Governing Board of the Auroville Foundation (AVF) in 2023, ‘Farm Service’ was set up to direct the farm sector. The Farm Group and the Farm Service were not able to find a way of working together and an imposition of a series of decisions like the cut in maintenances, land allocations and more recently the tendering of fruit trees managed by Auroville farms has further widened the gap between the farmers and the Farm Service and the larger administration. Any planning with regards to the farms has been stalled since then with no clear vision on the way forward. Farms continue the day to day work and meeting as the farm group but there is no active dialog between the farmers and the Farm Service/administration on finding a common ground of action.
Foodlink
Initiated by farm group in 2010, FoodLink is Auroville’s central collection and distribution point for Auroville’s farm produce. From here, the produce from Auroville farms is supplied to Solar Kitchen, Pour Tous outlets (PTDC and PTPS) and other eateries everyday. Occasional surplus is sold to customers outside Auroville. Apart from distribution of fresh produce, Foodlink pasteurises all the milk that is not distributed fresh and also does some value additions such as pickles, ghee, coconut oil, pesto etc. as well as packaging of grains processed by the Auroville granary. While many farms distribute their produce directly to units or Aurovilians, the major share of produce from all Auroville farms is still distributed through Foodink, a majority of which goes to PTDC and Solar Kitchen. Foodlink has been an active participant in the subgroups of the farm group in matters of crop planning, quality, and standards of food production.
Auroville Granary
The Auroville Granary (then called Foolink Granary) was set up in 2011 at Annapurna Farm as a central granary where grains from all the farms are received, dried, cleaned, stored and processed. This was done to maintain organic standards of processing the grain within Auroville and not having to send Auroville grains to mills outside where grains grown with chemical fertilisers are also processed. Once the crop is harvested at any farm, it goes straight to the granary and is stored there for as long as one year until there is demand for it at which point, the grain is processed and then delivered to Foodlink for further distribution. To improve standards, the grain farmers also set up the Auroville Grain Group and they continue to meet once a month to discuss crop planning, financial needs, cultivation improvements, prices and so on. Since growing grains needs substantial financial input at the beginning of the growing season, the group also created a crop loan fund within its internal financial organisation so that the grain farmer has enough cash flow, in the form of a loan, to cultivate a crop.
Apart from Auroville grown grains, Auroville Granary also procures and processes organically grown raw millets - Varagu, Tenai, Samai, Ulundu from some farms within Tamil Nadu as these crops have a high demand in Auroville and currently not being grown here due to high labour costs and risks from pests and wildlife.